You didn't think Palpatine bouncing around the furniture like a red ping pong ball and having Ian Mcdairmid make funny faces a tad over done

Though I have to confess I have always thought giving Yoda and Palpatine Lightsabers was a terrible idea.

I liked Yoda fighting in AotC because of how they paired the fight with Dooku although it meant suspending a lot more of my disbelief than usual. But I remember watching the fight between Yoda and Palpatine, which didn't really have Yoda getting the speed advantage anymore and a lot of close clashes, that Palpatine's reach was way longer so why didn't the battle end sooner. Maybe it was also my impatience because it was intercut with Obi-Wan and Anakin's battle and I hated having it being interrupted.

This is going to sound odd but I'd say it was the desert battle on Tantooine for me. It was short and I legitimately felt tension because I didn't know what was going to happen. The choreography and the setting stood out to me too. I felt like the other duels were a bit too predictable and too long.

the only one that didn't look choregraphed to the extreme (and the only one to look "real" in terms of sword fighting)

Eh, I don't expect realistic sword fighting in terms of lightsabers. Swords are heavy and made of metal where as lightsabers are light. (no pun intended) I just feel like it would make sense for things to get a bit fancy with lightsabers as opposed to actual swords. Plus the Force kind of points towards the notion that there aren't very many barriers in Star Wars, ANYTHING is possible with the Force. It is STAR WARS.

I'll watch Game of Thrones for my realistic sword sequences.

Anyways, back on topic. When the red shield door opens and Obi-Wan runs out all pumped up to fight Maul, the most intense 40 seconds of lightsaber fighting you'll ever see. It's all there, Darth Maul having just killed Qui-Gon, you feel the emotion and tension between Kenobi and Maul before and during the fight. Very fast and intense, it also flowed together quite nicely.

more realistic in the sense that neither treated it like a piece of cake, and that they didn't look like they knew what the other person was going to do, ie a rehersed ballet dance,

I wasn't talking in terms of physics of the blade.

I can feel you there. I honestly can't help but think this effect may have been produced on accident though. Both Samuel L. Jackson and Ian Mcdiarmid weren't expierenced in the whole lightsaber wielding role and I think I remember reading or watching something that claimed there wasn't a whole lot of thought put into the choregraphy of the duel because it was sort of a shotgun scene (The ease that those three Jedi were taken down by Sidious sort of supports that).

But I dunno. All of the saber duels certainly have their ups and downs and I can agree that Windu vs. Palpy is a pretty great one.

I enjoy the build-up to and final sequence in Obi-Wan vs Anakin. Simply the emotion of seeing two brothers embroiled in that battle is by far the most emotional in the saga followed by the Final Duel on the Death Star. However I agree that during the middle of Obi-Wan vs Anakin it just drags on too long.

You didn't think Palpatine bouncing around the furniture like a red ping pong ball and having Ian Mcdairmid make funny faces a tad over done

Though I have to confess I have always thought giving Yoda and Palpatine Lightsabers was a terrible idea.

Him being such a creative character has always made him my favorite. He always has a very wise Sith statement like "All who gain power are afraid to lose it" is an example of one of them. I also love his Lightsaber, what a regal hilt

*while Maul is turned round in a panic, Qui-Gon flees to the queen's ship*

(I'm only gently mocking. That first duel is amazing -- and the perfect demonstration of what a brilliant action director/graphic artist GL really is).

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Anyway...

I'll put a vote in for the Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan/Maul fight at the end of TPM. I know, original, aren't I?

But just the way it's lensed makes it epically exciting. Love the great anamorphic photography; and that rugged barrel distortion quite evident in its latter half (laser gate sequence and when Obi-Wan and Maul first engage on their own with Obi-Wan fuming).

Y'know, such gruff physicality, emphasized in the photography that this was, and is, such an intense, raw-boned fight -- while still being choreographed and quite balletic -- DOES put it over the others, I think.

The laser gate sequence is also just about the coolest thing I've seen in any movie EVER. It's one of many TPM-y facets that I just love about Episode I: very Sci-Fi, with Japanese/manga stylings, bold colour-and-form symbolism that punctuates the action space perfectly, serves additionally as a tribute to the chemical nature of film (changes in film dye can cause these kinds of colour distortions), and just feels suitably alien in a way none of the other categories quite capture in and of themselves. There are also many barriers and portals to be passed in Star Wars, in mythology; especially in Episode I.

What I also dig about the TPM duel -- although, this also saps it of its energy/momentum a little; but is a worthy compromise, perhaps -- is the way it is juxtaposed with a second hallway fight in Padme's action-oriented segment with the take-back of the palace. Hallway symbolism first appears when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon try busting through that thick blast door on the TF ship and must contend with droidekas, from which they quickly flee. Did they use a "trick" -- sleight-of-hand -- to confuse the droidekas' simple (robot) programming? Hints about distortions in perception abound in this film (consider these same Jedi, Jar Jar leading, entering the Gungan city via that bubble). There's some pretty radical stuff here.

Cool, too, how the duel is initially played off against a bevy of primary-coloured laser bursts (Anakin and Padme versus more droidekas; in the hangar), mirroring the primary-colour symbolism at work in the duel itself. Oh, yeah: I like how Maul uses that battle droid head to open the power generator doors, as well. And they just continue to duel all the time while the doors are opening behind them. The duel has a "conveyor belt"/"hands of doom" quality; but in a highly appropriate way. It's an aspect that sorta re-emerges in the final duels in ROTS (helped hugely by John Williams' apocalyptic scoring); but has a relieved absence in AOTC and the intervening duels of ROTS, I think (offering us good respite).

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The Clones duel, or duels, would be a second choice. Mainly for the way the combatants are all in a rush: the inverse of how the main duel at the end of TPM begins. It lends the encounter an awkward, slap-dash air; almost as if no lightsaber duel is conceivable in this stretch of galactic time (the erosion of control/restraint in the characters themselves -- too flustered, too compromised, to do any kind of elegant dance). The first move, tellingly, is not a lightsaber swoosh, but a blast of lightning, which immediately incapacitates one of the main characters. BAAAAZZZZZZZZZZ. The next character is then warned to "back down". Yet internal patterning/logic dictates that a duel must ensue; and several do. A great piece of music is played when Dooku finishes engaging Anakin and flings him to the floor, arm removed, Dooku looking sad/fatigued. And THEN Yoda ambles in: "New Challenger!" Is there any other moment quite as surreal as this one?

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I'll give an honourable mention, as well, to the next duel that comes along: the one in the opening section of ROTS. Having Christopher Lee in your movie, with a laser sword, is just too damn awesome. It's pretty impressive how they pulled that off (Chris Lee in a totally different location, a totally separate country, to Hayden and Ewan -- hope that hasn't ruined it for anyone!). "Invisible Hand"? How about invisible people? Anyway, I like the classicism of this duel; it's more OT/old school. Especially the staircase bit (really love that powerful "whoooosh!" noise heard when Anakin swipes at Dooku impatiently as he's ascending the stairs and misses). This is our first chance to see the more hulking look of Anakin in this film in a duel; and it does a good job communicating his growth in power between AOTC and this movie; even in the control he exudes (control is really power, isn't it?). That moment when his dueling is synchronized with the battling ships in the background is also breathtaking; and carries so much meaning. Then, finally, teetering as Dooku is quickly dispatched -- that little moment of hesitation, followed by a snap end, is like a stark note echoing from out of the void. It portends the peril to come; the mortal peril that Anakin is already in. Like a seal of approval: this CANNOT and WILL NOT end well. (In the Greek tragedy sense, anyway). I've also realized its parallel in AOTC is probably Anakin barking at Zam: "Tell us... TELL US NOW!" ("Kill him. Kill him now..." is the small reminder). That barking has turned into real bite; if only for an instant. Everything is yet to come...

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I also feel like giving the Mustafar duel a quick shout-out, if only for its monochromatic eloquence (although there's much more I like about it). That lava! WOW! It's really like the entire body of the PT built up to this one confrontation; and it really is. The thing I'd just like to spotlight is how that monochrome quality shades the fluidity of the lava itself. Water/fluid symbolism is huge in the PT. The prequel trilogy/saga starts over a planet rich in water/life (a stark contrast to the desert world of Tatooine, with water farmers, which announces the original trilogy). And the most heavenly music is played when the Jedi go on their little underwater swim with Jar Jar and that jeweled, glowing city is revealed for the first time. Padme associates herself with water in a critical moment in the middle installment, and Anakin then tries to distance himself from his own association: sand. The Clones are birthed on a planet that seems to be one endless sea of water in turmoil. Then we get the action climax: brothers at war, identifiable only at a distance by their blue (water-coloured) sabers which they cling to as the world collapses around them (they find momentary refuge on blue-shielded platforms/droids).

What's Lucas saying with all of this? The prequel trilogy, in part, seems to be about the dominance of the subconscious and the microscopic: Darth Vader, for instance, exists in microcosm in the psyche of Anakin in TPM, which is also conveyed in his own musical theme, then erupts, Mustafar lava-style, in the final act of Sith, finally birthed as a flesh-eating machine shell/carapace that locks Anakin away for the next quarter-of-a-century. Multiple acts of blindness are signified in the diegesis. Vader's birth is a literal "Frankenstein" moment: an unholy stitching together of disparate parts. We even hear Qui-Gon's theme; and Vader looks freakishly like Qui-Gon in gait/stance (he even has the outline of a small beard/goatee). Credit to MSTRMND for the Qui-Gon insights. Those who have mastered water worlds, water existences, seem to do best (e.g., the Gungans, the Kaminoans). The Jedi, in their machine (Death Star-like) city, fare not so well. Even if only accidentally (although: "Nothing happens by accident"), Ian McDiarmid seemed to stumble on this water symbolism inflecting the duels when he described the opera scene between Palpatine and Anakin in Sith as like a lightsaber duel of the intellect.

This is another reason I love the PT: wheels within wheels, vast implications. And where better to pack potent symbolism than in the duels themselves: the iconic staple/home-run of any SW movie?